FANTASY GRIND: Managing game-time Bush conundrums

A 37-year-old marketer from Dakota Dunes, South Dakota scored $1 million in Sin City this week by tuning everyone else out and going with his gut despite bad weather in some NFL games and some recent bad play by Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton.

Travis Spieth won the Fanduel Fantasy Football Championship, turning a $10 satellite buy-in into a hefty profit.

“I’d like to be humble about it but there’s a lot of study _ and you’ve got to have a little bit of luck,” Spieth said.

Spieth said he picked his lineup early in the week and didn’t waver, not wanting any of his friends to weigh in on his picks. Fanduel runs games that last one week each, on a scoring format that is relatively standard beyond awarding a half-point for each reception.

Spieth said weekly games have changed how he looks at season-long fantasy leagues, where he has four playoff teams in eight leagues. He said he’s found the weekly games draw more serious players, challenging him to look at many different variables as he’s making decisions each week.

There’s an advantage if you really look at all the conditions,” Spieth said.

Spieth said he plans to play more fantasy sports going forward.

“It’s just the American dream when you can spend $10 and win a million,” he said.

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FULL DISCLOSURE:

Got bounced from the playoffs in two leagues, leaving me with one team left in five leagues with a shot at a championship. One loss particularly stung _ Adrian Peterson and Reggie Bush got hurt, as did Lamar Miller in replacing Bush. Case Keenum got benched in the second half of Houston’s game as Jason Campbell went nuts on my bench in the two-quarterback league. Michael Floyd and Harry Douglas had bad weeks and Ladarius Green put up zero points in replacement of Jordan Reed, who was out with a concussion.

It’s on to keepers in that league, while going for another championship in a league with former journalism school colleagues.

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Oskar Garcia is a news editor in Honolulu who spends way too much time on fantasy sports with too little to show for it. He can be reached at ogarcia(at)ap.org or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/oskargarcia